The present invention relates generally to education and more specifically to active learning having a user immersed in a virtual environment that supports a user reference that is interactive with educational elements and having sustained large muscle activity.
Interactive devices are well-known. There are systems and methods for linking various types of user activity with a display image. For example, a video game offers various personal perspectives (e.g., first-person or third-person views) of a representation of the user recreated within the game space. Typically the user uses a hand-operated interface device (keyboard, keypad, and/or joystick) to move the representation of the user within the game space and perform various desired in-game activities. The video game typically does not offer educational elements reinforced through the user/representation interaction. Additionally, the user typically is using small muscles of the hands and fingers for non-sustained (burst) quick, deft, accurate control of the representation.
There are other systems and methods known in the art. These include golf-training aids and exercise equipment. A golf-training aid includes a sensor to detect how a user has swung a club and to reproduce either a representation of that swing and/or to generate a simulation of results of that swing. The exercise equipment includes stationary bicycles that provide a relief for some concerning some monotony experienced by some users. The relief is provided by including a scrolling background, sometimes linked to a calculated bike speed for the user. A similar use is employed for rowing machines.
Studies have begun to show a positive connection between learning and oxygenated state for the learner. While reading a book while sustained use of certain exercise equipment may help “learn” content from the book, the learning is not interactive with the activity and the opportunity for multimedia and immersion (and thus enhanced learning of additional content is lost).
What is needed is a system and method for interactive, sustained, and immersive learning in a virtual environment having a user-controllable self-reference frame while in an active aerobic state.